Exploring the Alternatives
by Queen of the Castle
Summary: People tended to just forget about or never even question the things that weren't right in front of their eyes, all obvious and begging for attention. Luna Lovegood knew this intimately. Luna/Ginny, Ginny/Hermione, implied future Luna/Ginny/Hermione.


People tended to just forget about or never even question the things that weren't right in front of their eyes, all obvious and begging for attention. Luna Lovegood knew this intimately, since she seemed to spend half her life reminding people about the existence of things that she _knew_ she'd already mentioned to them several times before. She couldn't quite figure out how anyone could fail to recall something as magnificent as a Crumple-Horned Snorkack once they'd been made aware of its existence, but she'd found that people were often odd that way. If something was unusual in some way, they just put it right out of their minds.

People were like that about other people as well, not just about creatures and things. That was the way they treated her, sometimes. She'd quickly learned not to mind. It was just how they _were_, after all. They couldn't help it, any more than she could help that she saw the world a little differently than most of them. She wouldn't even _want_ to change that.

Personally, Luna was certain that the more unusual things in life were almost intrinsically better as a result of their rarity, so it made little sense to push them out of her thoughts. She might have wished that other people would realise that as well, but then... well, then all of those wonderful things wouldn't be considered so unusual anymore, would they? Everyone would want a piece of them, and those things would slowly but surely lose some of their brilliance.

Still, that didn't mean she wasn't more than willing to convince a select few people of the truth.

If anyone needed convincing of something that had occurred to Luna ages ago, during another conversation along a similar sort of vein to the one she was currently listening to, then it was obviously Ginny Weasley.

It was the fourth time in just the last few weeks alone that Ginny had complained to Luna about boys, not to mention all the times they'd discussed (or rather, Ginny had ranted about) the matter before then. In fact, Luna would be hard-pressed to remember a single conversation between just the two of them that hadn't eventually ended up firmly pointed towards the shortcomings of 'those idiots', as Ginny often referred to them. Sometimes it was all about a specific boy (even though she was a Ravenclaw, Luna never would have intentionally sought the level of knowledge she now possessed about Dean Thomas's kissing style or the contents of the many arguments Ginny had had with him). Sometimes it was just about the entire male gender, as if they could all be painted with the same less-than-flattering brush.

Today, it was about Harry Potter.

"I can't even figure out how anyone, glasses aside, could be that blind," Ginny fumed. "It's like he doesn't even _notice_."

Luna listened politely, of course. That was what friends did, and she thought that she could surely count Ginny as a friend by then. It was just that she couldn't really _agree_ with Ginny, since Harry was her friend as well. Perhaps her best friend, she considered sort of distantly, since he was the only one who seemed to occasionally really _listen_ to what she was saying and not dismiss it out of hand, and he actually understood things like how she'd lost her Mum. And he'd invited her to that party as well, Luna remembered. That was nice of him.

She also couldn't really agree with Ginny because, actually, she _didn't_ know how boys could be. Not the way Ginny meant, anyway.

Perhaps that was why she could see the easy solution that Ginny had apparently overlooked. Ginny was so used to being with boys that way, and to the idea (the expectation, really) that she _should_ be with them, that the alternative wouldn't ever even occur to her.

"Sometimes I think I should just be shot of the lot of them," Ginny concluded.

Luna reached out and took Ginny's wildly-gesturing hands gently in her own. Their palms rubbed softly against each other as Ginny started enough to send a jolt through Luna's arms, though not enough to break the contact. Luna wondered if Ginny was shocked by the nature of the touch, or whether she'd just forgotten that Luna was even there (people did that sometimes, even when they were talking at her).

"Maybe you should be," Luna suggested helpfully. "Shot of them, I mean. If that's what you want."

Ginny stared down at their fingers, which Luna was happily entwining with her own, with a look of momentary incomprehension. Then her eyes widened with what Luna recognised as understanding. That look was one with which every Ravenclaw worth their salt was well acquainted.

"Luna," Ginny started, sounding slightly condescending, as people often did around Luna (though she couldn't figure out why they would). "That's just not _done_."

Luna smiled vaguely. "I know. That's why it never occurred to you that it might be the perfect solution to your problems. But just because something isn't done doesn't mean it's wrong."

Ginny stared at her shrewdly for a while. She did eventually pull away from Luna, though, leaving their hands to fall back to their respective sides.

The smile didn't fade from Luna's face as Ginny hurried away. She knew that, whatever Ginny might initially think, she'd still be _thinking_ about it regardless (possibly for days on end, if Luna wasn't mistaken).

People ignored Luna. They ignored the fact that she was smart enough to be a Ravenclaw, and they didn't even know well enough to ignore that the Sorting Hat had thought to put her in Slytherin before deciding that it wouldn't perhaps be the best place for her to thrive despite the hints of cunning she often showed.

Ginny, though, wouldn't be able to ignore her now, even if she tried. 

* * *

When Ginny grabbed Luna's hand and pulled her through the hallway, Luna was more interested in the fact that Ginny's hand still felt as nice against hers the second time around than she was in finding out where Ginny was taking her. It was Ginny, after all. As long as there was no hints of any Wrackspurt influence on her, Luna was quite content to trust her.

Their apparent destination was a disused classroom, which Ginny must have chosen more for its emptiness than for its atmosphere, given the dingy look of the place.

Luna didn't get a chance to comment on the Dinglerollers that were probably riding on all of those dust particles floating through the stale air, though, because she quite surprisingly found her mouth otherwise engaged.

Ginny's lips were even softer than her hands. Luna had never really understood or believed what the other girls in her dormitory had been talking about when they raved about 'sparks flying' and such when they snogged boys in assorted cupboards around the school. It was just the rubbing of skin and the swapping of saliva; nothing even half as magical as what they did in class each and every day. But though she'd been right all along that there were certainly no real sparks, there was still _something_ very pleasant about it, dispersing all throughout her rather than being just centred around her lips or even around the racing beat in her chest. It wasn't quite magic, perhaps, but she thought that it was still special.

As kisses went, Luna didn't really have anything to compare it to. She hoped Ginny might oblige her in making up for lost time, though.

Ginny let their lips part even as her hands found Luna's hips.

"I like boys," Ginny announced.

"Do you?" Luna asked. It seemed like sort of an odd thing to say, while holding onto the girl she'd just kissed moments ago, but Luna had never had trouble believing in the fantastic. "You seem to dislike them a lot as well, though. That must be confusing for you."

Ginny flushed slightly. Luna noted how it clashed with her hair slightly, but not so much as to make her look less attractive.

"Well, yeah," Ginny admitted. "But that's just because they're so ... _young_. I think they probably get much more bearable once they finally grow up and actually get a brain cell or two to call their own. My older brothers are nowhere near as annoying as Percy or Ron or the twins, at least. But I definitely want to be with a man one day, I think, just as soon as he's actually figured out how to stop being such a _boy_ all of the time."

Ginny said that with a look in her eyes that proclaimed how she already knew just who she had in mind.

"I think I might like a family one day," Luna said, considering. "Do you think I'd have to be with a boy for that?"

"Yes," Ginny said, sounding oddly relieved, as if Luna had grasped something essential. "I want a family, too. And I want... well, there's a boy who's worth waiting for, I think. I hope. So, you see, as nice as the... as _that_ was between the two of us, it can't happen again."

Luna frowned. "But that's _then_," she said. "It takes boys a while to grow up, you know. And I don't think I'll want a family until I'm much older, anyway. I think what we were doing earlier seems like a very enjoyable way to pass the time. And there's no reason why it mightn't end up being more than that."

That time, Ginny was a lot slower to race out of Luna's company so that she could go and think about things on her own. In fact, Luna reflected, she really did seem to enjoy taking her time exploring her options. She mapped out the corners of Luna's mouth as if the answers could be found there, and lingered over the kiss until they were both gasping for breath.

When Ginny did leave, much later, Luna was confident that she left with even more to think about than ever. 

* * *

The next time Luna saw Ginny, she stumbled across her in a fourth floor hallway completely by chance (though she thought that the Dirrivans may have had a hand in influencing her luck for the better, possibly as repayment for her setting that box of lizards loose inside the castle for them to catch and eat at their leisure).

Ginny was in the middle of what seemed to be a heated discussion with Hermione Granger at the time, which made Luna hang back. Luna couldn't be sure whether they were actually arguing, though, since she couldn't make out half of what they were saying, with their voices lowered like that.

She did, however, hear Ginny say, "... as if I'm just with them to pass the time while I'm waiting or..."

Hermione raised her eyebrows incredulously. Luna heard Dean Thomas's name mentioned (it was hard not to be able to pick it out, considering how often she'd heard Ginny say it recently) and was treated to another view of that strangely becoming blush that coloured Ginny's cheeks.

"... like you can talk..." she heard Ginny say accusingly. "... rest of eternity waiting... my brother... completely clueless, just like... but _we_ could... doesn't have to be like that..."

Even before Ginny finished her rant (Luna recognised Ginny's rants even without being able to properly hear them, of course), Hermione was already looking at Ginny in the sort of way that she had never looked at Luna. She looked as though she believed Ginny really did actually have a _point_, and that it was something that Hermione hadn't herself considered already.

Well, Luna thought, in this case Ginny's point _was_ Luna's. She couldn't wait to see the look on Hermione's face when Luna pointed that out, as she fully intended to do just as soon as an opportune time came around.

Right then was not that time, though. Luna sensed that Ginny and Hermione had things that needed to be worked out just between the two of them without having Luna interrupting things.

Ginny certainly sounded like she had something important to say.

Hermione's voice grew suddenly loud enough, in response, that Luna could make out every word that she was saying.

"Of course I don't think that!" Hermione said, sounding extremely ruffled. "It's perfectly natural, after all, and it's even beginning to be relatively common in the Muggle world. But you can't just _decide_ to like girls if you prefer boys."

"What if I like both?" Ginny challenged.

Hermione looked, for once, out of her depth. "Well... of course you _can_. It's called being bisexual. But Ginny, I don't think... I mean, I don't think _I'm_..."

Luna had heard a number of people all around Hogwarts complaining that Hermione Granger never shut up. She thought that perhaps those people should take notes from Ginny, who'd managed to interrupt Hermione quite soundly by simply covering her lips.

Well, not _just_ by covering her lips. There was also a great deal of stroking and grasping of robes and pressing of bodies together going on simultaneously. Luna wondered whether Ginny had grown bolder than she'd been with Luna herself, or whether Luna had just been too overwhelmed with the newness of having another person's tongue stroking against hers to properly notice all of the other touches that were being exchanged between them at the time.

Either way, it really was rather interesting to watch all of that as an outsider. Interesting, and very nearly as pleasant as actually taking part, in a way.

Luna wasn't all that bothered that Ginny was off kissing another girl, to be honest. Jealousy was a waste of energy that could be better spent tracking down some of the Nargles in the common room and taking them safely outside where they'd be much happier and would do a lot less damage to her unsuspecting classmates.

Besides, she and Ginny hadn't exactly ever agreed that they were in a relationship. Even if they had, Luna was well aware of some pertinent facts that other people often forgot because they were somewhat unconventional.

There was the fact that relationships didn't _have_ to be limited to just two people, for example.

Luna watched the way Hermione responded, apparently against her own better judgment, to Ginny's kisses, and how she arched slightly into the thumb that Ginny circled purposefully high up over the front of Hermione's robes.

Yes, there were certainly a number of options that might be pursued there. And Luna really wouldn't at all mind pointing them out to both of the other girls.

She thought that, for once, they might both really pay attention to what she had to say.

~FIN~


End file.
